


Document 2

by sketchypotato



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, One-Sided Attraction, sorry shu, this is just sad really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 16:05:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17103722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sketchypotato/pseuds/sketchypotato
Summary: (I couldn’t protect you from anything but failure– a coward like me wouldn’t have been able to raise anyone like that. Oh, Nito… You will make such a good teacher, or a parent.)(It hurts to know I won’t get to be by your side when you do become one. But I shall give my blessings for your past, present, and future.)(Congratulations, Nito.)(I really am so glad.)





	Document 2

**Author's Note:**

> Another fic in like 2 days? Long flights without wifi does things to you. Anyway those lines in the summary are from repaymentfes Human Comedy: Humanity-8 and they kill me everytime like wow Shu were you planning to become a parent with Nazuna if he hadn't left Valkyrie? Were you planning to marry him? ? ? Deadass. That's some disaster gay energy right there

Itsuki Shu, year one Yumenosaki student, would not say that he has a crush.

No, to describe his feelings towards Nito as merely being a crush would be ridiculous, blasphemous even. It goes beyond that of silly, fleeting attractions. Shu would do anything for Nito; to him, helping Nito is doing the rest of the world a favour, adding on to its beauty with his angelic voice and elegant looks. It's like Shu has found his calling, to create art with Nito, art that will blow the world away and enrich it as Valkyrie.

To have a crush would require a hope that the other party feels the same, but Shu doesn't need that. He doesn't need Nito to worship him, to see him as perfect as Shu sees Nito. He just needs Nito to be by his side, to accept all the love he has to give, so that Shu can help him preserve that perfection. It's like refining a work of art, except that Nito is already perfect, he just needs to let everyone else see it, and he's sure that this will let Nito attain happiness. After all, what greater joy can there be but to be Perfect?

That said, for all of his self-assurance that this one-sided giving is receiving itself, he is only human. And humans have weaknesses. Weaknesses such as letting his mind wander when he is exhausted from finishing a rehearsal and Nito smiles at him, telling him it is time for him to go back to his family and rejecting Shu's offer to walk him home. Shu lingers behind in the studio a little longer to check that everything has been packed up, and he thinks about the family that Nito mentioned, whether they are as ethereal and perfect as he is. His mind drifting further, he finds himself imagining what a family with Nito would be like, to come home and see Nito's smiling face and then he picks up their young, beautiful child for a hug, and he receives a kiss from both of them as the oven dings to let them know that the croissants for dinner are ready, and...

Shu stops in his tracks. No no no, what is he thinking? Nito is meant for more than such... Worldly things. But at this time of the day the logical part of his mind is too tired to stop him, and before long he's designed Nito's wedding outfit and planned the layout of their 2-storey home and chosen the names of their children, and he falls asleep at home thinking of the menu he would cook up for Nito, his tastes inferred from the meals they share during lunch.

He never tells Nito, of course, especially since by the next day when he is well-rested Shu is incredibly embarrassed about even thinking such things. But he still finds himself thinking about it from time to time, like when Nito accepts his homemade lunches with a faint blush, or when he welcomes Kagehira into Valkyrie with open arms and guides him like he would with a child, or when he hits that right note or syncs his dance movements with Shu's or gives Shu that angelic smile that makes Shu think, "I want to be by his side forever." It is a fleeting fantasy, one that doesn't suit their image at all, but as much as he tries Shu is only human. Not that he lets this interfere with how he treats Nito, he's much too professional to that, trying his best to maintain his dignified stance through the involuntary blushing. But Nito reacts as usual, sighing or rolling his eyes or occasionally smiling as he follows Shu, follows the vision that Valkyrie has set out for him, and Shu would be content as long as things would remain this way.

\----------

Even after Nito has left Valkyrie, the daydream sometimes still comes back to haunt him.

Such as now, watching the Ra*bits that Nito has nurtured perform on White Day, the children that he brought up without any of Shu's help. It's hurts him a bit to know that it is because he left Shu's side that he was able to flourish like this, but he tells himself that it's alright as long as Nito is happy. Wonderful, lively, beautiful Nito, and Shu was right to expect him to become a good parent, even if it's without Shu.

It seems like they were not meant for each other after all, perhaps it was foolish of him to believe so in the first place. Part of him wants to dismiss it as childish infatuation, part of him still doesn't want to admit that he would ever go through something like that, and part of him wonders if that really was all there is to it, when his feelings for Nito still stay strong as ever. He still wants to make Nito happy, the difference is that he now knows that it is not his place to do it, and if this distance is better for the both of them, then so be it.

Shu will be fine. He has Kagehira, who has stayed with him throughout it all, he has friends like Kiryuu, ever reliable despite their arguing, and the Oddballs, who have gone through similar pain. And in a sense, he still has Nito, albeit not as closely as he would've liked, but all the same he can still consider him a friend. It's probably a miracle that he is speaking to Shu at all after all that he had done, and that he can still say he cares about Valkyrie, enough to still come to their help, is more than enough for Shu.

Shu can't imagine that he would ever fall in love again the same way he fell for Nito. A love that compels you to jump out of second-storey windows is once in a lifetime after all. But despite everything, he can't say he regrets it. To have loved so much is only human.

But now is no longer the time to dwell on this. Ra*bits' performance ends, and Valkyrie's is soon to start. Shu takes his focus off Nito, for now it is Kagehira's time to shine. After all, he too has been nurturing a child in Nito's absence, although it may no longer be appropriate to call Kagehira a child any longer. They've all grown, Shu, Nito, Kagehira, Ra*bits, and surely this won't be the last time they meet. They'll continue to live, to grow, to face challenges and conflicts and resolutions, with or without each other. And they will surely reunite again.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Shu is my best boy actually I'm sorry to make him sound so sad I DO love shunazu even if I think they'll need a couple more years to sort things out. It's just that well. Shu POV. He's just dramatic and pessimistic abt the whole thing (dangit Shu)
> 
> Twitter @spacetier


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